Florent Perrier, beaufort producer
It is one of three producers of "chalet d'alpage" Beaufort, a rare PDO with less than 10,000 wheels per year, or 7% of total Beaufort production.
In January 2021, 50-year-old Perrier and his partner Mélanie Regazzoni will set up Gaec Les Arolles, the smallest farm in the area. The specifications are delicate. As with "summer" Beaufort, the milk must come from cows (of the Abondance and Tarine breeds) grazing the high-altitude pastures from June to October. The difference lies in the cheese-making process, which must be carried out on site (and not in a cooperative), immediately after milking, using warm milk from a single herd.
Florent Perrier was happy to take on this high-flying cheese. The man has a love of the product and a taste for challenge, as evidenced by his world championship titles in alpine skiing. Between 2004 and 2011, he swapped cheese-making aprons (from 4 a.m. to 1 p.m.) and ski suits (in the afternoon) in the same day.
From then on, his life was based on that of the herd, which climbed to the mountain pastures when the summer season arrived. First, at an altitude of 1700 meters, at the Darbelay chalet overlooking the Arêches valley, which the couple rent from the commune, equipped with a simple solar-powered generator. There's no electricity here. Below, the majestic Lac de Saint-Guérin. Between July 15 and the end of August, the cows continue their ascent in search of fresh grass. It's during this period that Florent Perrier and Mélanie Regazzoni settle in close proximity to them, in the modest chalet of Les Arolles, 300 meters higher up. The young woman, previously associated with her uncle, a dairy farmer, looks after the herd of 70 black-eyed tarines, more adroit and rebellious than their abundant congeners. "Mélanie looks after them as if they were her own children," says this father of two daughters at medical school, as well as a 3-year-old son from his union with Mélanie.
Twice a day, Florent Perrier collects the milk and heads for his workshop in the Darbelay chalet. in the old-fashioned way, he collects the curds in his copper pot with the help of a large linen cloth.a large linen cloth, before molding the cheese in a typical beechwood circle, which he covers and presses with another cloth to absorb moisture. Every day, the cheesemaker makes two to three beauforts (weighing around 40 kg each), which are matured in the cellar next to the workshop. The last time-consuming and physical task is to rub the heavy cheeses with salt and turn them over several times a week. Some of this work is delegated to the cooperative. "It's important to perpetuate know-how. After all, if it were easy, producers wouldn't have stopped in the 1960s," remarks Florent Perrier.
From autumn onwards, the pace slows. The family returns home to La Draie, near Beaufort, and simply delivers the milk to the cooperatives. Then the road to the mountain pastures closes. Once in winter, Florent puts on his skis to look after the uninhabited chalet. It's one of the rare occasions when the cheese-maker still takes to the slopes...
